29 Wash. 602 | Wash. | 1902
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This case involves the constitutionality of a law enacted by the legislature of 1901 (Session Laws, p. 118), entitled “An act to regulate and limit the hours of employment of females in any mechanical or mercantile establishment, laundry, hotel and restaurant; to provide for its enforcement and a penalty for its violation.” Section 1, the subject of this discussion, is as follows:
“That no female shall be employed in any mechanical or mercantile establishment, laundry, hotel or restaurant in this state more than ten hours during’ any day. The hours of work may be so' arranged as to' permit the employment of females at any time so that they shall not work more than ten hours during the twenty-four.”
Section 3 provides that:
“Any employer, overseer, superintendent, or other agent of any such employer who' shall violate any of the provisions of this act, shall, upon conviction, be fined” etc.
The information charged, in substance, the violation of this law. To this information a demurrer was interposed upon the ground that no offense was charged, which demurrer was sustained by the court. Erom such ruling and the judgment following, this appeal is taken.
On this subject the authorities are somewhat divided, though we think the great weight of modern authority sustains statutes similar to. the one under consideration. The case of Seattle v. Smyth, 22 Wash. 327 (60 Pac. 1120, 79 Am. St. Rep. 939), is cited to sustain the theory of the unconstitutionality of this act. That was a per curiam opinion, without any discussion of the principles involved, and, while it cited with commendation the case of In re Morgan, 26 Colo. 415 (58 Pac. 1071, 47 L. R. A. 52, 77 Am. St. Rep. 269), on the subject under discussion, the real point decided in Seattle v. Smyth was that an ordinance which makes it unlawful for any contractor upon any of the public works of the state to require or permit any day laborer or mechanic to' work more than eight hours in any one calendar day was unconstitutional, on the ground that it interfered with the right of persons to contract with reference to their services. We think that all authority sustains this doctrine; but that and similar cases are not in point, here, although the case cited, viz., In re Morgan, supra, did hold that a statute of the character under discussion here was unconstitutional, on the ground that the police power could not extend beyond cases where the injuiy was sustained by the public, and not by the individual in question. While this proposition, in the abstract, is probably true, it is not practically stated, for
“If the services to be performed were unlawful or against public policy, or the employment was such as might be unfit for certain persons, as, for example, females or infants, the ordinance might be upheld as a sanitary or police regulation.”
In referring to the case of Ah Lim v. Territory, supra, it was said by the Illinois court:
“Laws restraining the sale and use of opium and intoxicating liquor have been sustained as valid under the police power. Undoubtedly, the public health, welfare and safety may be endangered by the general use of opium and intoxicating drinks. But it cannot be said that the same consequences are likely to flow from the manufacture of clothing, wearing apparel and other similar articles.”
It must be borne in mind that Ah Lim was not indicted for procuring others to smoke opium, but for smoking
“The state may forbid certain classes of persons being-employed in occupations which their age, sex or health renders unsuitable for them, as women and young children are sometimes forbidden to be employed in mines and certain kinds of factories. And statutes are perfectly valid which provide that women or minors, shall not be employed in laboring by any person, in any manufacturing establishment, more than a certain number of hours in any one day, with reasonable exceptions. Of such laws it has been said, that they do. not violate any constitutional rights.”
Mr. Cooley, in his Constitutional Limitations (6th ed.), p. 744, says:
“The general rule undoubtedly is, that any person is at liberty to- pursue any lawful calling, and to do so in his own way, not encroaching upon the rights of others. This general right cannot be taken away. It is not competent, therefore, to forbid any person or class of persons, whether citizens or resident aliens, offering their services in lawful business, or to subject others to penalties for employing them. But here, as elsewhere, it is proper to recognizcdistinctions that exist in the nature of things, and under-some circumstances to inhibit employments to some one class while leaving them open to others. Some employments, for example, may be admissible for males and improper for females, and regulations recognizing the impropriety and forbidding women engaging in them would be open to. no reasonable objection.”
Ritchie v. People, noted approvingly In re Jacobs, 98 N. Y. 98, (50 Am. Rep. 636), where it is said:
“When a health law is challenged in the courts as unconstitutional on the ground that it arbitrarily interferes with personal liberty and private property without due process of law, the courts must be able to see- that it has ai*610 least in fact some relation to the public health, that the public health is the end actually aimed at, and that it is appropriate and adapted to that end.”
Accepting this statement of the law, we think it is easily ascertainable from a perusal of this act that its object was the public health, and that its provisions were appropriate, and. adapted to that end. It is a matter of universal knowledge with all reasonably intelligent people of the present age that continuoirs standing on the feet by women for a great many consecutive hours is deleterious to their health. It must logically follow that that which would deleteriously affect any great number of women who are tlia mothers of succeeding generations must necessarily affect the public welfare and the public morals. Law is, or ought to be, a progressive science. While the principles of justice are immutable, changing conditions of society and the evolution of employment make a change in the application of principles absolutely necessary to an intelligent administration of government. In the early history of the law, when employments were few and simple, the relative conditions of the citizen and the state were different, and many employments and uses, which were then considered inalienable rights have since, from the very necessity of changed conditions, been subjected to legislative control, restriction, and restraint. This all flows from the old announcement made by Blackstone that when man enters into society, as a compensation for the protection which society gives to him, he must yield upi some of his natural rights, and, as the responsibilities of the government increase, and a greater degree of protection is afforded to the citizen, the recompense is the yielding of more • individual rights. Transportation companies are now controlled and restricted, where a few years ago they claimed the right to transact their business exactly as it
We think no constitutional right is invaded by this law, and the case will be reversed, with instructions to. overrule the demurrer to. the complaint.
Reavis, O. J., and Anders, Mount, Fullerton, Hadley and White, JJ., concur.